Case Study Young Political Leaders of Serbia Project
In 2000, the Bulldozer Revolution and subsequent overthrow of President Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia created a window of opportunity for the reconstruction of Serbia’s government. After years of election fraud, tight media censorship and mistreatment of civilians, activists demanded a more democratic system and movement toward European integration. However, at the time, democratic political parties were too weak to gain the necessary votes to win office and form a stable government. Tension between democratically oriented political parties diminished the possibility of mutual party cooperation to form a joint government despite ideological similarities. The Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence (BFPE), a non-profit, non-partisan organization, emerged in Serbia in 2003 to reduce this tension between democratic parties. In 2004, BFPE jumpstarted the Five Hundred Young Political Leaders of Serbia project which ran from 2004-2008. However, for the sake of this case study the focus will be from 2006-2007, a duration of twelve months. During this period, BFPE hosted a series of seminars which included participants from two or more democratically oriented parties with the aim of building relationships as well as identifying useful areas of mutual cooperation. BFPE also chose to focus their efforts on young emerging leaders with the hopes that they could lead a new democratic political culture through educational seminars. BFPE’s final goal was to create a critical mass of young politicians willing to seek political compromise through a culture of dialogue and to gain the ability to create constructive political coalitions in the future.
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